Historic school goes home to Glynn Academy campus

It's the oldest wooden schoolhouse in Georgia

BRUNSWICK - The historic old Glynn Academy Building came home Tuesday.

Workers painstakingly moved the 168-year-old, two-story schoolhouse in sections from Sterling, where it had served as a community center, back to the Glynn Academy campus in downtown Brunswick.

Residents paused along the route to watch as crews with T&T House Moving and Heavy Rigging of Jacksonville transported the building - escorted by Glynn County and Brunswick police - 11 miles along state highways and city streets.

The move, which took about three hours, went flawlessly, said Howard Mann,assistant superintendent for operations at the Glynn County school system.

"She is back home now," Mann said after the building arrived shortly before 12:30 p.m. at the Mansfield Street campus.

The building is regarded as the oldest wooden schoolhouse in Georgia, state records show.

It was built in 1840 on Hillsborough Square, which is current site of Glynn Academy. At that time, it was a replacement for the first Glynn Academy building, records show.

The building was the only public school building in Brunswick for more than 50 years. In 1915, the building was moved to Sterling in northern Glynn County, where it served as a consolidated school for African-American students before desegregation.

It then became a county-maintained community center for Sterling residents.

Mann said it cost about $300,000 to relocate the building to Glynn Academy. The school system is using revenue raised by a 1-cent education sales tax to pay for the move and extensive renovations.

The second floor will become a school museum and the first floor will be available as a conference center and community meeting room, Mann said.

"It's going to be a community effort involving the Glynn Academy Alumni Association, the school system and historic preservation groups," he said.